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CCR and Verizon bring bioinformatics to high schools

Published: February 26, 2004

By ELLEN GOLDBAUMContributing Editor

A strategy in Buffalo aimed at stimulating awareness of careers in
the life sciences, particularly bioinformatics, has spurred local
teachers and UB's Center for Computational Research to develop several
in-school programs to introduce bioinformatics to area high school
students.

The goal of the project is to introduce students to the emerging
field of bioinformatics, where the life sciences meet computational
science, in the hopes of inspiringand retainingsome of
Western New York's best and brightest young people.

"Western New
York will be one of a handful of regions in the nation that soon will
introduce a bioinformatics program into the high school curriculum,"
said Thomas Furlani, associate director of CCR and co-director of its
high school bioinformatics project.

Called "Next Generation
Scientists: Training for Students and Teachers," the project is funded
by Verizon Corp.

"Verizon embraces UB's bioinformatics program
as an economic-development engine that will improve job prospects and
help keep our youth in Western New York," said Maureen Rasp-Glose,
Verizon's director of community affairs. "Everyone wins with an educated
workforce."

Furlani noted that the program provides students with
a unique experience.

"The students in this program will be
learning skills in computer science and biology that most high school
students aren't exposed to in Western New York," said Furlani. "These
skills will serve them very well in college if they pursue careers in
the sciences, particularly bioinformatics, which is, of course, our
objective."

"Next Generation Scientists" complements the effort,
first proposed by Gov. George E. Pataki in 2001, to harness the
strengths of universities and the private sector to create across New
York State strategically targeted, high-technology centers of
innovation, such as the UB Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics, aimed
at spurring economic development and creating jobs.

To develop a
skilled workforce that can leverage the region's existing strengths in
the life sciences and bioinformatics, UB is developing several master's
programs related to bioinformatics, and SUNY recently approved the
university's first undergraduate degree program in this growing field.

Through after-school bioinformatics clubs, the CCR/Verizon pilot
project so far has introduced more than a dozen highly motivated
students at City Honors, Mt. St. Mary Academy and Orchard Park High
School to the biology and chemistry of DNA and proteins, the Linux
operating system, the basics of how to build small computer clusters and
PERL, the basic programming language for bioinformatics.

At Mt. St. Mary, a Catholic high school for young women, the program
has had the additional benefit of increasing access to technology skills
for students who usually may not pursue them.

"The CCR/Verizon
project has most certainly improved and broadened technology education
at Mt. St. Mary," said Dawn Riggie, principal of the school. "In
pursuing this project with CCR and Verizon, the fields of computer
technology and bioinformatics have been opened up for our young women to
learn about, and to play and experiment with. Our young women have
learned a great deal and with that knowledge comes confidence and the
belief that they can do more."

Furlani and E. Bruce Pitman,
professor of mathematics and associate dean for research and sponsored
programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, supervise CCR's annual
summer computing workshops for high school students.

This past
summer, several high school teachers involved in the project also
attended CCR's annual workshop with their students as preparation for
their involvement in "Next Generation Scientists."

Verizon has
provided $50,000 to the project. HP donated a small computer cluster to
each of the three schools, as well as a "mirror cluster" at CCR. Early
work on the project also was funded in part by the National Science
Foundation.